CDC to issue guidance on how to control superbugs

By Dina Fine Maron
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Incorrect prescribing practices are fueling the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, the senior United States public health agency official said today.

"We estimate that approximately half of all antibiotics used among people in the United States are unnecessary or inappropriate." We are taking this precious resource and squandering it "Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the President's Council of advisors on Science and technology in Washington, D.C."To be frank, there is a very bad practice in terms of antimicrobial prescribing, "he said.

Previous studies have already shown how the use of drugs on human beings and on-farm antimicrobial can promote conditions that allow the drug-resistant bacteria proliferate, representation front medicines that treat disease ineffective. But next week the CDC are weighed with his first report of balance of the urgent problems in this area and check which organisms pose imminent threats and measures should be taken. "We are sounding the alarm because it is not too late," said Frieden. Now there are few data on global trends in antimicrobial resistance and there is no comprehensive picture of the subject in the United States, he added. Compounding the challenge to follow these emerging concerns is public health job reductions in recent years due to budget cuts and the kidnapping.

A threat that Frieden said today is a carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae or CRE. This family of germs, including Escherichia coli, is particularly difficult to treat because of high levels of resistance to antibiotics. CRE usually attacks patients in long-term health settings like nursing homes if they are dependent on ventilators, catheters or intravenous treatments to help with basic bodily functions. "The fact key to remember is even if it is a problem very badly, is not too late to prevent it," he said.

Raise the antimicrobial resistance monitoring and implementation of programmes that would help detect and protect against antimicrobial resistance will be key, said in his testimony. Support collaboration between public health and clinical medicine will be the "most important challenge to public health face in the next decade", said. "I don't think that there are quick answers. "I don't think there are simple answers, but I think that there are emerging answers."

The CDC provides that the Genomic sequencing of microbes will be a key tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Sequencing of the genomes of microbes and more information about them and how they interact with human genomes of gleaning provides a new level of data that could foster stronger action against antimicrobial resistance, said Frieden. Combining traditional epidemiological methods, Genomic sequencing and bioinformatics will give researchers new energy to find, stop and prevent outbreaks, he said. Best data tracking and rewarding institutions for strong performance could also promote better conditions in long-term care centres.

Simple steps that amount to the programmes of administration of antibiotics will also play an essential part, it said. Obtain bacterial cultures of patients before beginning a course of antibiotics and take that "antibiotic out time" to evaluate how antibiotics are working after 48 to 72 hours, for example, will help stem the tide of unnecessary consumption. Ensuring all orders of dose, duration, and indications for prescription will be another part of that administration.

Frieden reviews highlighting the resistance to human drugs the use of antibiotics comes on the heels of repeated calls for action in the community of public health as to restrict the use of anti-microbial between cattle. Currently, no regulation of farm limited the use of antimicrobials in livestock and large farms typically administered low doses of antibiotics to healthy animals, that allow to grow rapidly, but increase the risk of drug-resistant bacteria breeding. Already, about 80% of antibiotics sold in the United States are destined for animal feed instead of people, according to recent estimates. The United States food and Drug Administration does not have the authority to collect data upon exactly how antibiotics are used.

Guide issued by the FDA requested livestock producers to voluntarily reduce their use of antibiotics for growth promotion between cattle while other FDA guidelines (which has not yet been finalized) also asked drug makers to stop marketing their products for purposes of animal production. Public health groups maintain only mandatory requirements will be effectively limit the use of antimicrobials among farm animals.